Olivia Hompe is a student, humanitarian and athlete for all seasons

Olivia Hompe is one of the greatest scorers in national girls' high school hockey history, but she's going to miss a few games at the end of this month.

Hompe, a New Canaan (Conn.) senior center and captain, will have a good reason for being absent. She's going to The Hague International Model United Nations in the Netherlands.

"We're going as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, where I'm trying to solve water access in Africa," Hompe said. "It's a really intense convention. There are only several schools from the United States, and New Canaan is the only public school."

You've probably figured out by now that Hompe is not your average high school student. She stays busy with a number of Advanced Placement courses and is headed to Princeton in the fall, where she will play lacrosse.

Hompe is just as extraordinary on the ice. She recently became the country's second all-time leading scorer with 325 points (198 goals, 127 assists) and has helped the Rams win two Connecticut High School Girls Hockey Association championships in three years.

"She's unique," New Canaan coach Rich Bulen said. "They talk about in baseball five-tool players. She can shoot, she can skate, she's got great hands, she's got smarts, and she sees the ice. Like (Wayne Gretzky), she sees the ice. She knows where everybody else is. She's made some of the most obscene passes I've ever seen."

Hompe has been around the ice for most of her young life. Her mother, Amanda, helped her learn how to skate when she was three years old.

Amanda walked on to girls' hockey team at Massachusetts' Groton School. Xandra and Eliza, Olivia's older sisters, played at New Canaan and in college.

"Growing up, I was on a Mite B team for Darien Youth Hockey," Olivia Hompe said. "That probably what's hooked me.

"When I was 12, I was playing up with (Eliza) on a U-14 team. That was really exciting, and I think I focused more on hockey. I had played a lot of sports. When I was younger, I played soccer. I didn't play lacrosse when I was that young. I just really liked sports, I tried anything out, and getting on those (hockey) teams, I was trying to follow in (her family's) footsteps."

Hompe has surpassed her older sisters on the ice. Three-time U.S. Olympian Natalie Darwitz is the only high school player to have scored more (468 points).

Hompe is unfazed by her scoring marks, and is just as happy making an assist as she is getting a goal.

"When I was young, especially playing boys' hockey, I was not really a scorer," Hompe said. "I was more of a passer and an assist-er. When I entered high school, it was a different environment for me. I realized I had to score. But even (last week), my favorite goal of the (Hall/Conard-West Hartford) game was when I brought (the puck) down the side, passed it to Corbett (Ripley) and saw her hit it in. She got to tackle me first."

In that game, New Canaan avenged last season's overtime loss to Hall/Conard in the state final at Yale, remaining unbeaten and untied with a 4-3 victory; Hompe registered two goals and an assist.

Bulen said, "The stats go along with her being as good as she is, but that girl, she couldn't care less. She doesn't care (about stats)."

Bulen used the Rams' 2-0 win over rival Darien this week as an example of Hompe's attitude.

"Nathalie (Deney), our goaltender, had an outstanding shutout," Bulen said. "She's a first-year goalie. Olivia went to slip out the side door (to avoid the media) and said, ‘let them talk to Natalie, please.' I said, ‘Okay, got it.' She said, ‘Thank you.'"

Hompe's hockey career ends this winter, though, as she'll play lacrosse at Princeton.

"I think a lot of people expected me to play hockey in college," Hompe said. "It was really a tough decision to make."

Bulen said, "I don't know if she told you this, but I said, to her, ‘what are you doing?' She smiled at me and said, ‘I figured it out. I need to focus on academics, and lacrosse is only a spring sport. I have more time for academics and can keep up, and if I do hockey, I can't do that.'

"You can't argue with the kid," Bulen concluded. "She's figured it all out."

Ned Griffen has covered high school, college and professional sports in the Northeast since 1992. A 2003 New England Associated Press News Executives award winner, he may be reached at nedgriffen@gmail.com